White House Week

This week at the White House President Obama caught basketballs shot off a hand-built catapult, test drove a remote-controlled search-and-rescue robot, and used his hand to activate an auto-retracting bridge made of Legos – all part of his tour of the 2014 White House Science Fair.

This year’s event brought 100 kids from more than 30 states to participate in a day-long showcase of innovative projects, patent-worthy inventions, and potentially life-saving discoveries made by America’s brightest young minds. The student exhibitors included a young researcher making progress to develop an anti-flu vaccine, an engineer who built an electric car and then raced it in a national competition, a group of girl coders who built an app to help their visually impaired classmate, and multiple teens with patents pending on groundbreaking inventions that could one day save lives.

President Obama also announced the following:

• A $35 million Department of Education competition to support of the President’s goal to train 100,000 excellent STEM teachers
• A major expansion of STEM AmeriCorps to provide STEM learning opportunities for 18,000 low-income students this summer
• A national STEM mentoring effort kicking off in seven cities
• New steps by leading technology and media companies, non-profits, and others to connect more students to STEM

On Tuesday, the President announced that 22,000 more troops will return home by the end of the year, ending the U.S. combat mission in December 2014.